Tag: SGMA
-
California Water under a Trump Administration, Part 1 of 2
By Karrigan Börk Editor’s note: Interim Director Karrigan Börk appeared on the NPR show AirTalk a few weeks ago to address California water policy under a Trump administration; the segment starts at 18:00. This blogpost is the first of a 2 part series exploring the topic from a nonpartisan perspective with a goal of predicting likely outcomes…
-
How Better Data is Helping to Improve Water Management in California
By Spencer Cole Careful stewardship is key for managing California’s highly sought-after water resources, but a lack of reliable data hampers this goal. That’s beginning to change, however, thanks to two things: technological advances and the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. SGMA has made waves in the…
-
How to incentivize better groundwater use
by Ellen Bruno, Molly Bruce, and Katrina Jessoe For more than a century, parts of California have been using groundwater faster than the resource can be replenished. As a result, aquifers are dwindling—a mounting challenge for irrigators, communities, and ecosystems. The negative impacts of over-extraction include subsidence, shallower wells running dry, and water-quality deterioration. If overextraction remains…
-
This Drought is Dead – Long Live the Drought
by Jay Lund and Andrew L. Rypel Floods and droughts are not opposites and can occur simultaneously. This occurs often in California and is especially well-illustrated this year. Floods, droughts, and water scarcity are different. Floods are too much water at a place and time, and we would often pay to reduce the water present…
-
The Public Trust and SGMA
by Brian Gray In a recent decision in litigation over flows and salmon survival in the Scott River system, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that groundwater pumping that diminishes the volume or flow of water in a navigable surface stream may violate the public trust. The public trust does not protect groundwater itself.…
-
Groundwater exchange pools in Los Angeles: An innovative example of adaptive management
by Erik Porse, Kathryn Mika, Stephanie Pincetl, Mark Gold, and William Blomquist Across California, Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) are devising plans to reduce long-term overdraft. As part of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, GSAs will submit plans in 2020-2022, which detail strategies to bring groundwater use into balance by 2040. Planning processes must assemble…
-
SGMA struggles to overcome marginalization of disadvantaged communities
by Kristin Dobbin Small Disadvantaged Communities (DACs), or DACs with less than 10,000 people, have long been disproportionately affected by California’s water management woes such as groundwater overdraft and pollution. Now, new research from the UC Davis Center for Environmental Policy and Behavior shows that the majority of small DACs are not participating in the…